The ‘cash-for-questions’ scam has proved that corruption is a great leveller. It is totally secular, casteless, classless and absolutely egalitarian in its spread. It could be nationalist and cross-border too, if questions are paid for in, say, oil vouchers. Yes, there is a north Indian bias as usual, but this is one ‘inequality’ our otherwise self-respecting Dravidian MPs will happily let pass. In any case, we know the south will not wane on that count. But the point is that corruption is the underlying, rather, under-the-table, bond that unites politicians of all hues.
No doubt, corruption is all pervading and every Indian pays his way out of many situations day in and day out. And so it could be argued that the people deserve their rulers …Yadha raja and all that. But grassroots corruption can never be cited as an alibi for the vile ways of our elected reps for the simple reason that they are supposed to be law makers, with privileged protections provided for that purpose. Now is it right, morally or otherwise, to profit out of such privileges? That too when the people, the true masters and their pay-masters too, are punished for far lesser crimes? The comparison may seem odious, but given the sordid scenario it is inescapable. Because it hurts.
Well, let us draw up a common real life or much caricatured filmi scene: Enter any police station and you will find a miserable man propped up against a wall, stripped to his loin clothes and a menacing cop looming over him. The poor soul’s crime would have been a petty one, but the latti would have had its fill and the wielder too would have, in all conviction, ‘enforced the law’. And just across the room at the table would be seated a ‘dada’ of a much higher pedigree, awaiting a lawyer or a phone call from his political mentor. And once the ‘formalities’ are over he walks away without a scratch but with a ear-to-ear grin, at having cocked a snook at the law. Our much mauled simpleton, however, will have to stay put, awaiting the next bout of boots and batons!
The plight of the ordinary citizen is no different, with the lawmaking-Parliament and the law-enforcing agencies emulating that familiar police station. And no prizes for guessing who those ‘privileged’ dadas are! Now, no one can grudge the stringent implementation of the law. But the moot question is, is law enforcement evenhanded? Or are lawmakers above law? Are they entitled to privileged treatment when they flout the law? Even if they do it with impunity at the very precincts in which they create those laws? Particularly when it is now well known that the whole process of making those laws, the debates and question hours in LS and RS, is often unlawful? For, where is the guarantee that what little transpires in Parliament after bedlams, walkouts and adjournments, is not sponsored by lawless vested interests? And when law-makers-turned-law-breakers slip through the law, but are netted by agencies other than the law, what is the assurance that they would be brought to book under relevant laws? After all, the adjudicators are none other than those of that very ilk, co-lawmakers, something even common law and common sense, does not allow for reasons of propriety and fairness? This is vital because the long arm of the law that acts in Godspeed in cornering commoners strangely remains folded now, with no criminal case, not even an FIR, being filed till date against the erring MPs!
Contrast this to what the prajas put up with. Every morning they wake up to endearments in the media, veiled warnings really, to pay the taxes promptly and honestly and then live peacefully. Credit card statements are studiously scrutinised, household expenditures, even marriage expenditures are vetted, cash withdrawals get taxed and monitored, and of course, most taxes are at source. The houses of businessmen, professionals, filmstars etc are routinely raided for concealing income, howsoever legitimate the incomes may be. Even in cases of reasonable grievance, you pay first and protest later. The citizens are hounded day in day out, made to feel like criminals on the run, at worst and beggars without choice, at best. And yet they take it all in stride, not just out of fear of future trouble, but also owing to an intrinsic sense of obligation to abide by law. In short, the people at large obey, or are made to obey, the law. Can the same be said of their reps?
After all, it is common knowledge that much of the black money and undisclosed incomes, that the ‘super-honest’ PM and the’ super- efficient’ FM are so zealously chasing are in the hands of the politicos. And it is immoral money, stolen from the public, unlike the concealed but hard-earned incomes of the citizens. Most politicos do not even bother to vacate government bungalows or pay their water, telephone or electricity bills while ordinary citizens cannot get away with such misdemeanors, all loopholes having been scrupulously plugged by a meticulous administration. Fair enough. But, now cannot the PM and the FM muster similar zeal and conviction and make bold to turn the arc lights on those seated beside them in Parliament? After all the duo has created a system that so thoroughly monitors the teeming millions of the country. Is it difficult to get details on the wheelings and dealings of a paltry 540 or so MPs? Why not presume guilt, given the public aversion for that motley crowd and all-round aspersions about their behaviour, and put the onus on them to prove their innocence? For that matter why not subject every politician who has held power in the last couple of decades to severe scrutiny? In short, why not treat them like ‘ordinary’ citizens? One can guarantee that putting the politicos under the scanner would not only be fair, but fruitful too. The FM can look for some real buoyancy in revenues if only he chooses to act against his own fraternity, first and fast!
The cost of parliamentary sessions plus the payout to MPs ‘to serve the people’, is stupendous. And every penny is picked ‘lawfully’ from the pockets of the people, the poor and the prosperous alike. Those who, therefore, pocket them on the sly deserve to be outlawed outright, even if they happen to be lawmakers!
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